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GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN 
THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 



BY 
FREDERICK V. EMERSON 



ReVHINTED from the PaOCEEDIVOS OF THE 

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL 
ASSOCIATION, Volume VIII 



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GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN THE MISSISSIPPI 

VALLEY 

By Frederick V. Emerson 

It might seem as superfluous to begin with a defini- 
tion of geography, as to give one of history or algebra, 
for instance, except for the fact that secondary-school 
geography, with which we are all familiar, has a scope 
and content somewhat different from university geogra- 
phy, a much greater difference, I imagine, than exists for 
example between secondary-school history or algebra and 
the university phases of these subjects. The university 
concept of geography will perhaps be made clearer by a 
brief account of its development. 

The acceptance of the theory of evolution may be 
said to mark the beginning of modem geography. Prev- 
iously geography had been very largely synonymous with 
exploration and its concomitant map-making, but with 
an understanding of evolution, the influence of what is 
sometimes called ''physical environment" began to be 
more and more appreciated. Travelers, of whom Hum- 
boldt is a type, had accumulated considerable data so that 
the responses of people to earth factors could be studied. 
The outcome was Ritter's definition of geography as the 
study of the earth as the home of man, which is today the 
essential definition of university geography. 

Naturally different emphases are placed on various 
phases of geography in different countries. Geography 
is to be found in practically every German university but 
usually in close connection with some other department 
such as geology, anthropology, or applied economics. In 
England geography until recently has been almost sy- 



290 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

nonymous with travel and exploration, a response to the 
widespread colonial interests of the nation. A refleo- 
tion of this is seen in the pages of the Journal of the 
Royal Geographic Society which abounds with travelers' 
tales, some pertinent, but containing many details of 
hunts, camps, and what they had for meals — much good 
material but requiring thorough sifting. Recently the 
school of geography at Oxford has published some good, 
clean-cut work. For graduation theses in this school 
students take a small area, describe the surface, soil, and 
climate and then trace the influence of these factors from 
the earliest recorded time to the present. However logi- 
cal, direct thinking along geographic lines is perhaps best 
developed in France. A splendid series of monographs 
has appeared, covering among other regions the Plain 
of Flanders, Brittany, the Loire Valley, and the Paris 
Basin. Each monograph includes a thorough treatment 
of the geology, surface, soils, flora, and climate, and then 
a history of the region with special reference to geo- 
graphic factors. 

In the United States, almost without exception geog- 
raphy has developed in university departments of geol- 
ogy. The work of American geologists on the land 
forms so well shown in the West and on glaciation vir- 
tually created a new line of investigations which are de- 
scribed by the term physiography or geo-morphology, 
and from the physiographers the ranks of the geogra- 
phers are largely recruited. The trend of American geog- 
raphy during the last twelve years is well shown in the 
programs of the Association of American Geographers. 
The earlier programs consisted largely of physiographic 
discussions, such as problems of steam erosion, glacial 
studies, and meteorological investigations. For the last 
four or five years a rapidly increasing proportion of 
these programs has been given to papers which treat 
largely of anthropogeographic problems and investiga- 
tions. 



GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES 291 

Professor Davis of Harvard, who is a leader both of 
the technical physiography and of the newer humanized 
geography has proposed an elaborate system by which 
to arrange the content of geography. He would separate 
the subject into two coordinate divisions; one the inor- 
ganic, now commonly known as physical geography, and 
the other the organic responses for which he has coined 
the term ontography. Thus in a geographic treatment 
of, say the lower Mississippi, he would treat under one 
head the behavior of the river and under the other head 
treat the various influences of the river upon human af- 
fairs. In short, geography, according to this concept is 
largely a study of relations rather than a study of dis- 
tribution and location. These factors are, of course, 
fundamental in geography but they are likewise import- 
ant in many other subjects. The distribution of votes as 
showing political parties, for example, is clearly a his- 
torical topic. But if there is made a comparison of votes 
in, say, the mountains and the limestone lowlands of Ten- 
nessee, the geographic factors of soil and topography 
must enter into the problem. 

This somewhat lengthy introduction has seemed ad- 
visable in order clearly to set forth the general working 
idea of college and university geography. I emphasize 
the content of university geography rather than second- 
ary-school geography since the college and university 
concept of a subject usually in considerable measure be- 
comes stamped on the secondary-school phase. 

It seems to me that geography is most intimately 
connected with history from the economic standpoint of 
history. Economic and industrial conditions usually 
have close connection with earth factors and they are, of 
course, important factors in history. On the other hand, 
geographic factors are not without influence on the social 
and political phases of history, but the relations are not 
so obvious as in the case of economic factors. Take a 



292 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

few cases in point. The line of twenty inches of annual 
rainfall passes through central Kansas and Nebraska. 
Less than twenty inches means precarious wheat and 
corn, more means good crops. Moreover, the rainfall in 
the subarid belt and, in fact, the humid belt of this region 
appears to occur in cycles. In general about once in 
seven years there are a few years of drought. It cannot 
be a mere coincidence that populism had its notable de- 
velopment in Kansas during the dry years of this pre- 
cipitation cycle, although it should not be forgotten that, 
superadded to the dry years, there was the general eco- 
nomic depression of that time. I fancy that few watch 
the crop weather much more closely than the adminis- 
tration leaders at Washington for the average voter will 
punish the party in power for any unfavorable crop 
weather. The influence of the weather on the up-state 
vote in New York is a matter known to every one inter- 
ested in the politics of that state. 

Somewhat along another line, it seems to me that a 
close study of the Mormon church in Utah, at least on its 
secular side, would show interesting responses to an arid 
climate. For example, the Mormon hierarchy has main- 
tained a firm hold on its adherents and I believe this con- 
trol is in part at least a response to the necessary irriga- 
tion in an arid region. Irrigation makes for small farms 
and a concentrated rural population, and such a concen- 
tration lends itself to effective control by a central body. 
It was Hilgard, I believe, who suggested that the ancient 
high civilization in southwestern Asia arose from the 
cooperation necessary in irrigating that arid region. 

Again, when the present history of settlement in the 
arid West is written, a common mistaken response to 
geographic conditions must be noted. Eastern settlers 
are accustomed to select a somewhat-heavy soil like the 
limestone soils of the Blue Grass region or the silts and 
clays of the wheat belts, soils of proved productiveness 



GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES 293 

in the humid regions. Eastern settlers in the arid West 
have chosen such soils only to meet with failure in many- 
cases because these soils absorb and hold moisture very 
poorly. Here the light, sandy soils, which are less pro- 
ductive in humid regions, are the productive type be- 
cause of their excellent water-holding capacity. This 
recalls a mistaken geographic response so often noted in 
the settlement of prairies in the Middle West. The east- 
ern settlers almost invariably chose woodland which here 
was found largely in the rougher country along the 
streams. The pioneer's belief was that the prairies, 
which did not produce timber, could not be productive 
for crop purposes. 

It is perhaps safe to say that a study of the votes 
cast in almost any state will show some geographic dif- 
ferentiation of parties especially if the state has strongly 
contrasted districts. Schaper's study, ^'Sectionalism and 
Representation in South Carolina," ^ is a fine illustration. 
You will recall that he traces the sharp differences be- 
tween the Coastal Plain, or ''Low Country," and the 
Piedmont, or "High Country," differences in customs, 
ideas, origins, farm tenure, and politics, and that with 
the invention of the cotton gin and the spread of upland 
cotton the two sections became more homogeneous politi- 
cally. Phillips, in his study, "Georgia and State 
Rights," ^ brings out essentially the same facts for Geor- 
gia, and Ambler, in his ' ' Cleavage Between Eastern and 
Western Virginia," has set forth the sharp differences 
between the strongly contrasted physiographic districts 
of that state. 

Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, in fact all the southern 
states, include strongly contrasted regions, and very of- 
ten different, and often antagonistic, ideas and interests 
have developed in these areas of contrasted soil, topog- 

1 Printed in Amer. Hist. Assn., Eeport, 1900, I, 237-463. 

2 Ibid., 1901, II. 



294 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

raphy, and industries. Even Louisiana, which outside 
the state is commonly believed to be somewhat uniform, 
has two well-marked regions, the northern hills and the 
southern plains which are often politically antagonistic. 
Illinois, a typical prairie state, which seems to the casual 
observer somewhat uniform, nevertheless has two well- 
recognized divisions, based mainly on soils and topog- 
raphy. Northern Illinois is glaciated, and its soils are 
very productive. Southern Illinois, locally termed 
** Egypt," is less productive and more eroded. North- 
em Illinois was accessible to northern settlement from 
the Great Lakes route, while the southern part of the 
state was settled largely from the border southern states. 
The well-known ante-bellum political differences between 
these sections has a marked geographic background. 

The geographic distribution of slavery, both general 
and local, presents extremely interesting and compara- 
tively unworked problems. The institution was estab- 
lished along the Atlantic littoral both north and south and 
by the time of the Revolution it was practically extinct 
in the North and growing in the South because it paid 
better in the South. In the South it became predominant 
in certain localities and was all but unknown in oth- 
ers. The wave of dense slave population extended from 
the Coastal Plain to the Piedmont and later from the 
Piedmont to the Black Belt. In the Cotton South the 
spread was conditioned by favorable soils. Of course, 
the development was somewhat sporadic; here for some 
reason there were few slaves in a fertile region and there 
in a rather infertile district the census reports show a 
somewhat dense slave population. Creed, nativity, mar- 
kets, and the local economic organization were important 
factors in the distribution of slaves. Local studies of 
slavery should be very interesting since on the whole the 
institution was sensitive to geographic influences. 

In the Mississippi Basin the influences of the rivers 



GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES 295 

are well worth study. The larger geographic responses 
have long been understood. The influences of the Mis- 
sissippi System, together with the easy portages to the 
Great Lakes, on French colonization have long been ap- 
preciated, as well as the separatist movement of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee which looked forward to unobstruct- 
ed use of the lower Mississippi. A local study of the 
geographic influences of the Missouri River in Missouri 
showed a high percentage of settlers from Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas, many of whom fol- 
lowed the easy route down the Cumberland and Ohio and 
up the Missouri. Many brought their slaves and their 
politics with them, and were, naturally, different from the 
people in the northern part of Missouri who came largely 
from states north of the Ohio. 

There are several difficulties in correlating geogra- 
phic factors and history and there is abundant need of 
caution. Economic history is more adaptable to geogra- 
phic interpretation than political history, but the former 
offers fewer available data. Then, geographic influence 
is but one of many factors affecting the course of history. 
There are racial, social, economic, and psychological fac- 
tors, not to name others, which must be considered, each 
mutually acting and interacting. Since the specialist's 
view is necessarily narrow he is liable to overemphasis. 
Then, again, there is a constant temptation to too easy 
generalization. A case in point is the oft-repeated state- 
ment that the picturesque scenery of Greece, the moun- 
tains and the sea, will account for the aesthetic develop- 
ment of the Greeks but it is Mahaffy, I think, who calls 
attention to the fact that Greek literature contains scarce- 
ly a reference to these features in a literary sense ; rather 
the mountains are to be scaled and the sea to be com- 
bated. English writers often assert that the success of 
immigrants from England to America is largely due to 
our colder, more stimulating climate. There may be some 



296 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

truth in this but the British immigrant is usually a picked 
man and there is open to him an economic opportunity 
that is denied in the mother country. 

A question only to be touched here is how much 
technical geography is necessary to the interpretation 
and teaching of history, and, of course, there are so many 
varying factors that the question can never be categori- 
cally answered. The historian can state, for example, 
that the Black Belt in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, 
had a soil favorable to cotton, and hence the high den- 
sity of slave population was there. Or he may state 
that the Black Belt has a rolling surface, a rich lime- 
stone soil with a high humus content, which content gives 
fertility and also the name of the belt. Or one may go 
further and illustrate with a diagram the evolution of 
the belts of the upper Coastal Plain. Doubtless I am 
prejudiced but it seems to me that the historian can well 
afford to give some attention not only to soils, topog- 
raphy, and climate but could even afford space and time 
for elementary explanatory descriptions for the purpose 
of impressing these features on the attention and mem- 
ory. Especially is this true if the factors in question 
have played any important part. 

This paper is admittedly fragmentary, both because 
of time and space limitations, but especially because so 
much work on the correlation of earth factors and human 
affairs yet remains to be done. The geographer should 
be able to set forth the surface, soil, drainage, and climate 
of a given region. He may also suggest how these fac- 
tors have influenced human activity but his suggestions 
should be finally checked by and must be passed upon by, 
investigators in the social sciences. If such cooperation 
shall contribute to clearer, more explicit, and more com- 
plete interpretation and teaching of history it is surely 
well worth while. 



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